Page 4In Nepal, ….. , different understandings of Deafness were often mapped onto distinct Nepali language terms: ‘lato’ and ‘bahira (bahiro)’. ‘Lato’, a pejorative term meaning “deaf and dumb’ in the literal and the figurative senses, reflected the stigma surrounding deafness. Deaf leaders often pointed out that the term ‘lato’ indicated a lack of communicative or intellectual ability rather than simply hearing loss …. . ‘Lato’ was by far the most widely known term among hearing Nepalis …… Groups such as the Kathmandu Association of the Deaf had campaigned vigorously to remove the term from media accounts that focused on their activities.

Page 71Nirmal Kumar Devkota (2003), a Deaf leader, estimated in 2003 that only 1% of deaf children had received any schooling. In addition, ….. , because schools for deaf children in the country were few and did not exist at all before 1996, most deaf students had been enrolled in schools for hearing children, where provisions were rarely made to give such students access to the spoken and written discourse. Only those few students who entered the schools for the deaf children after Nepali Sign Language began to emerge were exposed to an accessible language at a young age.